A New York Perch for Aviary, Chicago’s High-Concept Bar

The Aviary NYC will probably be the first of several branches of Grant Achatz’s high-concept lounge.

Whitten Sabbatini for The New York Times

By ROBERT SIMONSON

August 25, 2017

With its second location, the Aviary will finally live up to its name.

Unlike the original, ground-level cocktail bar in Chicago, the New York branch — the first satellite of the chef Grant Achatz’s high-concept lounge — will occupy a perch on the 35th floor of the Mandarin Oriental hotel off Columbus Circle. Yes, it’ll have a bird’s-eye view of Central Park.

Mr. Achatz and his partner, Nick Kokonas, didn’t lack for suitors after the first Aviary opened to much ballyhoo in 2011. “We’ve had so many offers to do another in Tokyo or London,” Mr. Achatz said. “We’d been talking to the Mandarin for over five years.” The early discussions centered on Mr. Achatz’s bringing one of his famous Chicago restaurants to Manhattan, but pivoted to talk about the bar.

The Aviary NYC will probably be the first of several branches. Micah Melton, the bars’ beverage director, noted that there are many Mandarin Oriental hotels around the world. “We’ll definitely have at least one more location, if not two or three,” he said.

Much of the Aviary NYC will be familiar to anyone who has visited the Chicago bar. The décor is hotel-lounge lush. The bartenders are out of sight, their workings as mysterious as those of Oz behind his curtain. Drinks will arrive in custom-made receptacles and glassware, fizzing and smoking and infusing away. Just as in Chicago, the Aviary NYC is paired with the Office, a more traditional bar that opened in the hotel in June.

But there will be new features as well. The 90-seat Aviary NYC will open in the morning, inviting the prospect of day-drinking, and offer tea and coffee creations. Established drinks will be tweaked to reflect local tastes. One cocktail, which is typically served in a plastic bag filled with aromas associated with oatmeal, will now smell and taste like a New York breakfast of bagels and coffee.

There will also be food — as progressive as the drinks — from morning until close, including tasting menus of three, five and seven courses, paired with cocktails. As in Chicago, there will be two tables in the drinks kitchen where guests can interact with bartenders and chefs, and enjoy an 11-to-13-course menu with cocktails and spirits.

When the Chicago Aviary opened, elaborate trappings like these were novel. Cocktail customers have matured since then, and Mr. Achatz suspects that less indoctrination into the unique ways of the bar will be needed in New York.

“Aromas and special vessels were pretty new seven years ago,” he said. “Now they are less uncommon. I don’t think it will be as jarring.”